Mar. 10, 2016, 6:50 p.m.

Ted Cruz tried to paint himself as a maverick during Thursday's debate, but ended up pointing to a time he rode a wave of popular opinion.

When Donald Trump vaguely promised to get the federal budget under control by eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse," Cruz saw an opening. He countered that voters want candidates to name specific cuts and pointed to his own vow ahead of the Iowa caucuses to end federal help for ethanol, the corn-based fuel that has long been the untouched third rail of Iowa politics.

But Cruz's attempt to paint himself as a the candidate willing to buck popular sentiment and make hard decisions falls short of the reality of the moment. As The Times' Evan Halper found, even Iowans have begun to move on from ethanol.

Mar. 10, 2016, 7:57 p.m.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio affirmed at the Republican presidential debate Thursday that he would oppose all efforts by the U.S. government to curb global warming.

“As far as a law that we can pass in Washington to change the weather, there’s no such thing,” Rubio said in response to a question about the increasing frequency of Miami street flooding due to rising sea levels.

Rubio pounded President Obama for his efforts against global warming, saying all of the legislation and regulation he has pushed in that area would “devastate our economy.”